Dragonfly Editorial

How editors could have saved Obamacare

By Samantha Enslen • May 26, 2015

The U.S. Supreme Court is soon expected to announce its decision in King v. Burwell, which deals with the Federal Government’s responsibility to pay for federal exchanges established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

When it comes to laws that affect millions of Americans, I think we mostly trust that somebody is going over the text with a fine-toothed comb, making sure that every word and phrase is just right.

But at the heart of this case are four little words: “established by the State.”

These words created the confusion that started the case—can the Federal Government subsidize both federal and state-run exchanges, or state-run exchanges only?

The Supremes are expected to give their opinion in June or July. In the meantime, writers of the bill are claiming that the words in question are the result of, essentially, a typo.

TheNew York Timesexplains that “the words were a product of shifting politics and a sloppy merging of different versions. Some described the words as ‘inadvertent,’ ‘inartful’ or ‘a drafting error.’”